Ian Matthews - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 6-3-1976

Here's yet another Ebbets Field radio broadcast concert. This time, it stars singer-songwriter Ian Matthews.

Here's the Wikipedia entry intro for him: "He was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK Number One in 1970 with their cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock.' In 1979, his recording of Terence Boylan's 'Shake It' reached No. 13 on the US charts." 

One other important fact about him is that in 1989, he changed the spelling of his first name from "Ian" to "Iain." I'm using "Ian" for this post though, because that was the name he was using in 1976.

Matthews had a lot of success in the early 1970s in a folk rock mode, including the British Number One single mentioned above. He led two bands in that era, Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong. However, he changed his musical style to pop rock with his 1976 album "Go for Broke." This concert took place about a month after the release of that album, so he was focused on that new style. His voice was well suited for that type of music. However, many of his fans were unhappy about the change, and his 1976 album didn't do as well as many of his previous ones. Despite this, he would stick with this different musical style through the rest of the 1970s.

As far as I can tell, this recording wasn't publicly available at all until earlier this year (writing this in July 2026). But this full concert was included on the new archival release "Rhythm of the West: The Columbia Years 1975-1977." A second Ebbets Field concert he did from 1977 was also included, and I plan on posting that soon as well. This seems to be the first newly officially released Ebbets Field concert by any musical act in many years, so let's hope others will follow. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long. 

01 Steamboat (Ian Matthews)
02 Hit and Run (Ian Matthews)
03 Rhythm of the West (Ian Matthews)
04 I Will Not Fade Away (Ian Matthews)
05 Payday (Ian Matthews)
06 Times (Ian Matthews)
07 Tigers Will Survive (Ian Matthews)
08 Shuffle (Ian Matthews)
09 Faith to Arise (Ian Matthews)
10 Nobody (Ian Matthews)
11 Truck Driving Man (Ian Matthews)
12 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews)
13 talk (Ian Matthews)
14 Brown Eyed Girl (Ian Matthews)
15 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xXkP4xbr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/g7qEA2aY6fKShmv/file 

The cover image of Matthews is from an appearance on the Dutch TV show "Toppop" some unknown time in 1976.